,La2 Lz 



International Conciliation 



SPECIAL BULLETIN 



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ay 1 



LABOR'S WAR AIM^ 



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1. Memorandum on War Alms/'adopted by the liiter- 
Allied Labor and Socialist Conference, Febru- 
ary 22, 1918. _. / , - 

IL The Ahied Cause is the Cauie^of Socialist Inter- 
nationalism: Joint Manifesto of the Social 
Democratic League of America and the Jewish 
Socialist League. 




JUNE, 1918 



AMERICAN association FOR INTERNATIONAL CONCILIATION 

SUB-STATION 84 (407 WEST II7TH STREET) 

NEW YORK CITY 



I Monograph 



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It is the aim of the Association for International Con- 
ciliation to awaken interest and to seek cooperation in 
the movement to promote international good will. This 
movement depends for its ultimate success upon in- 
creased international understanding, appreciation, and 
sympathy. To this end, documents are printed and 
widely circulated, giving information as to the progress 
of the movement and as to matters connected therewith, 
in order that individual citizens, the newspaper press, 
and organizations of various kinds may have accurate 
information on these subjects readily available. 

The Association endeavors to avoid, as far as pos- 
sible, contentious questions, and in particular questions 
relating to the domestic policy of any given nation. 
Attention is to be fixed rather upon those underlying 
principles of international law, international conduct, 
and international organization, which must be agreed 
upon and enforced by all nations if peaceful civiliza- 
tion is to continue and to be advanced. A list of pub- 
lications will be found on pages 47 and 48. 



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MEMORANDUM ON WAR AIMS 



Adopted by the Inter-Allied Labour and 

Socialist Conference in London 

February 22, 1918 

Reprinted from the London Times, February 25, igi8 
THE WAR 

I. The Inter- Allied Conference declares that what- 
ever may have been the causes of the outbreak of 
war it is clear that the peoples of Europe, who are 
necessarily the chief sufferers from its horrors, had 
themselves no hand in it. Their common interest is 
now so to conduct the terrible struggle in which they 
find themselves engaged as to bring it, as soon as 
may be possible, to an issue in a secure and lasting 
peace for the world. 

The Conference sees no reason to depart from the 
following declaration unanimously agreed to at the 
Conference of the Socialist and Labour Parties of the 
Allied Nations on February 14, 1915: 

"This Conference cannot ignore the profound gen- 
eral causes of the European conflict, itself a mon- 
strous product of the antagonisms which tear asunder 
capitalist society and of the policy of Colonial depen- 
dencies and aggressive Imperialism, against which 
International Socialism has never ceased to fight, 
and in which every government has its share of re- 
sponsibility. 

"The invasion of Belgium and France by the Ger- 
man armies threatens the very existence of indepen- 

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dent nationalities and strikes a blow at all faith in 
treaties. In these circumstances a victory for German 
Imperialism would be the defeat and the destruction 
of democracy and liberty in Europe. The Socialists 
of Great Britain, Belgium, France, and Russia do 
not pursue the political and economic crushing of 
Germany; they are not at war with the peoples of 
Germany and Austria, but only with the governments 
of those countries by which they are oppressed. They 
demand that Belgium shall be liberated and com- 
pensated. They desire that the question of Poland 
shall be settled in accordance with the wishes of the 
Polish people, either in the sense of autonomy in the 
midst of another state, or in that of complete inde- 
pendence. They wish that throughout all Europe, 
from Alsace-Lorraine to the Balkans, those popula- 
tions that have been annexed by force shall receive 
the right freely to dispose of themselves. 

"While inflexibly resolved to fight until victory is 
achieved to accomplish this task of liberation, the 
Socialists are none the less resolved to resist any 
attempt to transform this defensive war into a war 
of conquest, which would only prepare fresh conflicts, 
create new grievances and subject various peoples 
more than ever to the double plague of armaments 
and war. 

"Satisfied that they are remaining true to the prin- 
ciples of the International, the members of the Con- 
ference express the hope that the working classes 
of all the different countries will before long find 
themselves united again in their struggle against mili- 
tarism and capitalist Imperialism. The victory of 
the Allied Powers must be a victory for popular 
liberty, for unity, independence, and autonomy of 

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the nations In the peaceful federation of the United 
States of Europe and the world." 

MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY 

II. Whatever may have been the objects for which 
the war was begun, the fundamental purpose of the 
Inter-Allied Conference in supporting the continuance 
of the struggle Is that the world may henceforth be 
made safe for democracy. 

Of all the conditions of peace none is so important 
to the peoples of the world as that there should be 
henceforth on earth no more war. 

Whoever triumphs, the peoples will have lost unless 
an International system is established which will pre- 
vent war. What would it mean to declare the right 
of peoples to self-determination If this right were 
left at the mercy of new violations, and was not 
protected by a super-national authority? That au- 
thority can be no other than the League of Nations, 
In which not only all the present belligerents, but 
every other Independent state, should be pressed to 
join. 

The constitution of such a League of Nations implies 
the immediate establishment of an International High 
Court, not only for the settlement of all disputes 
between states that are of justiciable nature, but also 
for prompt and effective mediation between states 
in other Issues that vitally interest the power or 
honour of such states. It is also under the control 
of the League of Nations that the consultation of 
peoples for purposes of self-determination must be 
organized. This popular right can be vindicated only 
by popular vote. The League of Nations shall estab- 
lish the procedure of international jurisdiction, fix 

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the methods which will maintain the freedom and 
security of the election, restore the political rights of 
individuals which violence and conquest may have 
injured, repress any attempt to use pressure or cor- 
ruption, and prevent any subsequent reprisals. It 
will be also necessary to form an International Legis- 
lature, in which the representatives of every civilized 
state would have their allotted share and energetically 
to push forward, step by step, the development of 
international legislation agreed to by, and definitely 
binding upon, the several states. 

By a solemn agreement all the states and peoples 
consulted shall pledge themselves to submit every 
issue between two or more of them for settlement 
as aforesaid. Refusal to accept arbitration or to 
submit to the settlement will imply deliberate aggres- 
sion, and all the nations will necessarily have to make 
common cause, by using any and every means at 
their disposal, either economical or military, against 
any state or states refusing to submit to the arbitra- 
tion award, or attempting to break the world's cov- 
enant of peace. 

But the sincere acceptance of the rules and de- 
cisions of the super-national authority implies com- 
plete democratization in all countries; the removal 
of all the arbitrary powers who, until now, have 
assumed the right of choosing between peace and war; 
the maintenance or creation of legislatures elected by 
and on behalf of the sovereign right of the people; 
the suppression of secret diplomacy, to be replaced 
by the conduct of foreign policy under the control of 
popular legislatures, and the publication of all treaties, 
which must never be in contravention of the stipula- 
tion of the League of Nations, with the absolute 

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183 

responsibility of the Government, and more particu- 
larly of the foreign minister of each country to its 
Legislature. 

Only such a policy will enforce the frank aban- 
donment of every form of Imperialism. When based 
on universal democracy, in a world in which effective 
international guarantees against aggression have been 
secured, the League of Nations will achieve the com- 
plete suppression of force as the means of settling 
international differences. 

The League of Nations, in order to prepare for 
the concerted abolition of compulsory military service 
in all countries, must first take steps for the pro- 
hibition of fresh armaments on land and sea and for 
the common limitation of the existing armaments by 
which all the peoples are burdened; as well as the 
control of war manufactures and the enforcement of 
such agreements as may be agreed to thereupon. The 
states must undertake such manufactures themselves, 
so as entirely to abolish profit-making armament firms, 
whose pecuniary interest lies always in the war 
scares and progressive competition in the preparation 
for war. 

The nations, being armed solely for self-defence 
and for such action as the League of Nations may ask 
them to take in defence of international right, will 
be left free, under international control either to 
create a voluntarily recruited force or to organize 
the nation for defence without professional armies 
for long terms of military service. 

To give effect to the above principles, the Inter- 
Allied Conference declares that the rules upon which 
the League of Nations will be founded must be 
included in the Treaty of Peace, and will hence- 

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forward become the basis of the settlement of differ- 
ences. In that spirit the Conference expresses its 
agreement with the propositions put forward by Pres- 
ident Wilson in his last message : 

1. That each part of the final settlement must 
be based upon the essential justice of that particular 
case, and upon such adjustments as are most likely 
to bring a peace that will be permanent. 

2. That peoples and provinces are not to be 
bartered about from sovereignty to sovereignty as 
if they were mere chattels and pawns in a game, 
even the great game now forever discredited of the 
balance of power; but that 

3. Every territorial settlement Involved in this 
war must be made in the interest and for the benefit 
of the populations concerned, and not as a part of 
any mere adjustment or compromise of claims amongst 
rival states. 

4. That all well-defined national aspirations shall 
be accorded the utmost satisfaction that can be 
accorded them without introducing new or perpetu- 
ating old elements of discord and antagonism that 
would be likely in time to break the peace of Europe 
and, consequently, of the world. 

TERRITORIAL QUESTIONS 

III. The Inter- Allied Conference considers that 
the proclamation of principles of international law 
accepted by all nations, and the substitution of a 
regular procedure for the forceful acts by which 
states calling themselves sovereign have hitherto ad- 
justed their differences — in short, the establishment 
of a League of Nations — gives an entirely new aspect 
to territorial problems. 

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i85 

The old diplomacy and the yearnings after domi- 
nation by states, or even by peoples, which during 
the whole of the nineteenth century have taken ad- 
vantage of and corrupted the aspirations of nation- 
alities, have brought Europe to a condition of anarchy 
and disorder which have led inevitably to the present 
catastrophe. 

The Conference declares it to be the duty of the 
Labour and Socialist Movement to suppress without 
hesitation the Imperialist designs in the various states 
which have led one Government after another to seek, 
by the triumph of military force, to acquire either 
new territories or economic advantage. 

The establishment of a system of international 
law and the guarantees afforded by a League of 
Nations, ought to remove the last excuse for those 
strategic protections which nations have hitherto felt 
bound to require. 

It is the supreme principle of the right of each 
people to determine its own destiny that must now 
decide what steps should be taken by way of resti- 
tution or reparation, and whatever territorial re- 
adjustments may be found to be necessary at the 
close of the present war. 

The Conference accordingly emphasizes the im- 
portance to the Labour and Socialist Movement of 
a clear and exact definition of what is meant by the 
right of each people to determine its own destiny. 
Neither destiny of race nor identity of language can 
be regarded as affording more than a presumption 
in favor of federation or unification. During the 
nineteenth century, theories of this kind have so 
often served as a cloak for aggression that the Inter- 
national cannot but seek to prevent any recurrence 

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of such an evil. Any adjustments of boundaries 
that become necessary must be based exclusively 
upon the desire of the people concerned. 

It is true that it is impossible for the necessary 
consultation of the desires of the people concerned 
to be made in any fixed and invariable way for all 
the cases in which it is required, and that the problems 
of nationality and territory are not the same for the 
inhabitants of all countries. Nevertheless, what is 
necessary in all cases is that the procedure to be 
adopted should be decided, not by one of the parties 
to the dispute, but by the super-national authority. 

Upon the basis of the general principles herein 
formulated the Conference proposes the following 
solutions of particular problems: 

(a) BELGIUM 

The Conference emphatically insists that a foremost con- 
dition of peace must be the reparation by the German Govern- 
ment, under the direction of an International Commission, 
of the wrong admittedly done to Belgium; payment by that 
Government for all the damage that has resulted from this 
wrong; and the restoration of Belgium as an independent 
sovereign state, leaving to the decision of the Belgian people 
the determination of their own future policy in all respects. 

(b) ALSACE AND LORRAINE 

The Conference declares that the problem of Alsace and 
Lorraine is not one of territorial adjustment, but one of 
right, and thus an international problem, the solution of 
which is indispensable if peace is to be either just or lasting. 

The Treaty of Frankfort at one and the same time muti- 
lated France and violated the right of the inhabitants of Alsace 
and Lorraine to dispose of their own destinies, a right which 
they have repeatedly claimed. 

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The new Treaty of Peace, in recognizing that Germany, 
by her declaration of war of 1914, has herself broken the 
Treaty of Frankfort, will make null and void the gains of 
a brutal conquest and of the violence committed against 
the people. 

France, having secured this recognition, can properly 
agree to a fresh consultation of the population of Alsace 
and Lorraine as to its own desires. 

The Treaty of Peace will bear the signatures of every 
nation in the world. It will be guaranteed by the League 
of Nations. To this League of Nations France is prepared 
to remit, with the freedom and sincerity of a popular vote, 
of which the details can be subsequently settled, the organi- 
zation of such a consultation as shall settle forever, as a 
matter of right, the future destiny of Alsace and Lorraine, 
and as shall finally remove from the common life of all 
Europe a quarrel which has imposed so heavy a burden 
upon it. 

{c) THE BALKANS 

The Conference lays down the principle that all the 
violations and perversions of the rights of the people which 
have taken place, or are still taking place, in the Balkans 
must be made the subject of redress or reparation. 

Serbia, Montenegro, Rumania, Albania and all the ter- 
ritories occupied by military force should be evacuated 
by the hostile forces. Wherever any population of the 
same race and tongue demands to be united this must be 
done. Each such people must be accorded full liberty to 
settle its own destiny, without regard to the Imperialist 
pretensions of Austria-Hungary, Turkey, or other state. 

Accepting this principle, the Conference proposes that 
the whole problem of the administrative reorganization of 
the Balkan peoples should be dealt with by a special con- 
ference of their representatives or in case of disagreement 
by an authoritative international commission on the basis 
of {a) the concession within each . independent sovereignty 

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of local autonomy and security for the development of its 
particular civilization of every racial minority; {b) the uni- 
versal guarantee of freedom of religion and political equality 
for all races; (c) a Customs and Postal Union embracing 
the whole of the Balkan States with free access for each to 
its natural seaport; (d) the entry of all the Balkan States 
into a Federation for the concerted arrangement by mutual 
agreement among themselves of all matters of common 
interest. 

((/) ITALY 

The Conference declares its warmest sympathy with the 
people of Italian blood and speech who have been left out- 
side the boundaries that have, as a result of the diplomatic 
agreements of the past, and for strategic reasons, been 
assigned to the Kingdom of Italy, and supports their claim 
to be united with those of their own race and tongue. It 
realizes that arrangements may be necessary for securing 
the legitimate interests of the people of Italy in the adjacent 
seas, but it condemns the aims of conquest of Italian Imperial- 
ism and believes that all legitimate needs can be safeguarded, 
without precluding a like recognition of the deeds of others 
or annexation of other people's territories. 

Regarding the Italian population dispersed on the eastern 
shores of the Adriatic, the relations between Italy and the 
Yugo-Slav populations must be based on principles of equity 
and conciliation, so as to prevent any cause of future quarrel. 

If there are found to be groups of Slavonian race within 
the newly defined Kingdom of Italy, or groups of Italian 
race in Slavonian territory, mutual guarantees must be given 
for the assurance of all of them, on one side or the other, of 
full liberty of local self-government and of the natural develop- 
ment of their several activities. 

(e) POLAND AND THE BALTIC PROVINCES 
In accordance with the right of every people to determine 
its own destinies, Poland must be reconstituted in unity and 
independence with free access to the sea* 

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1 89 

The Conference declares further, that any annexation by 
Germany, whether open or disguised, of Livonia, Courland or 
Lithuania would be a flagrant and wholly inadmissible viola- 
tion of international law. 

(J) THE JEWS AND PALESTINE 
The Conference demands for the Jews in all countries 
the same elementary rights of freedom of religion, education, 
residence and trade and equal citizenship that ought to be 
extended to all the inhabitants of every nation. It further 
expresses the opinion that Palestine should be set free from 
the hard and oppressive government of the Turk, in order 
that this country may form a Free State, under international 
guarantee, to which such of the Jewish people as desire to 
do so may return and may work out their own salvation free 
from interference by those of alien race or religion. 

(g) THE PROBLEM OF THE TURKISH EMPIRE 
The Conference condemns the handing back to the system- 
atically cruel domination of the Turkish Government any 
subject people. Thus, whatever may be proposed with 
regard to Armenia, Mesopotamia and Arabia, they cannot 
be restored to the tyranny of the Sultan and his Pashas. 

The Conference condemns the Imperialist aims of Govern- 
ments and capitalists who would make of these and other 
territories now dominated by the Turkish hordes merely 
instruments either of exploitation or militarism. If the 
peoples of these territories do not feel themselves able to 
settle their own destinies, the Conference insists that, con- 
formably with the policy of "no annexations," they should 
be placed for administration in the hands of a Commission 
acting under the Super-National Authority or League of 
Nations. It is further suggested that the peace of the world 
requires that the Dardanelles should be permanently and 
effectively neutralized and opened like all the main lines of 
marine communication, under the control of the League of 
Nations, freely to all nations, without hindrance or customs 
duties. 

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190 

(h) AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 

The Conference does not propose as a war aim dismem- 
berment of Austria-Hungary or its deprivation of economic 
access to the sea. On the other hand, the Conference cannot 
admit that the claims to independence made by the Czecho- 
slovaks and the Yugo-Slavs must be regarded merely as 
questions for internal decision. National independence ought 
to be accorded, according to rules to be laid down by the 
League of Nations, to such peoples as demand it, and these 
communities ought to have the opportunity of determining 
their own groupings and federations according to their 
affinities and interests. If they think fit they are free to 
substitute a free federation of Danubian states for the Austro- 
Hungarian Empire. 

(i) THE COLONIES AND DEPENDENCIES 

The International has always condemned the colonial 
policy of capitalist Governments. Without ceasing to con- 
demn it, the Inter- Allied Conference nevertheless recognizes 
the existence of a state of things which it is obliged to take 
into account. 

The Conference considers that the treaty of peace ought 
to secure to the natives in all colonies and dependencies 
effective protection against the excesses of capitalist colonial- 
ism. The Conference demands the concession of adminis- 
trative autonomy for all groups of people that attain a certain 
degree of civilization, and for all the others a progressive 
participation in local government. 

The Conference is of opinion that the return of the colonies 
to those who possessed them before the war, or the exchanges 
or compensations which might be effected, ought not to be 
an obstacle to the making of peace. 

Those colonies that have been taken by conquest from 
any belligerent must be made the subject of special con- 
sideration at the Peace Conference, as to which the com- 
munities in their neighbourhood will be entitled to take part. 

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191 

But the clause in the treaty of peace on this point must 
secure economic equality in such territories for the peoples 
of all nations, and thereby guarantee that none are shut 
out from legitimate access to raw materials; prevented from 
disposing of their own products, or deprived of their proper 
share of economic development. 

As regards more especially the colonies of all the bel- 
ligerents in Tropical Africa, from sea to sea, including the 
whole of the region north of the Zambesi and south of the 
Sahara, the Conference condemns any imperialist idea which 
would make these countries the booty of one or several nations, 
exploit them for the profit of the capitalist, or use them for 
the promotion of the militarist aims of the governments. 

With respect to these colonies the Conference declares 
in favour of a system of control, established by international 
agreement under the League of Nations and maintained by 
its guarantee, which, whilst respecting national sovereignty, 
would be alike inspired by broad conceptions of economic 
freedom and concerned to safeguard the rights of the natives 
under the best conditions possible for them, and in particular: 

(i) It would take account in each locality of the wishes 
of the people, expressed in the form which is possible for them. 

(2) The interests of the native tribes as regards the 
ownership of the soil would be maintained. 

(3) The whole of the revenues would be devoted to the 
well-being and development of the colonies themselves. 

ECONOMIC RELATIONS 

IV. The Inter-Allied Conference declares against 
all the projects now being prepared by Imperialists 
and capitalists, not in any one country only, but in 
most countries, for an economic war, after peace 
has been secured, either against one or other foreign 
nation or against all foreign nations, as such an 
economic war, if begun by any country, would inevi- 

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tably lead to reprisals, to which each nation in turn 
might in self-defence be driven. The main lines of 
marine communication should be open without hin- 
drance to vessels of all nations under the protection 
of the League of Nations. The Conference realizes 
that all attempts at economic aggression, whether by- 
protective tariffs or capitalist trusts or monopolies, 
inevitably result in the spoliation of the working 
classes of the several countries for the profit of the 
capitalists; and the working class see in the alliance 
between the Military Imperialists and the Fiscal 
Protectionists in any country whatsoever not only 
a serious danger to the prosperity of the masses 
of the people, but also a grave menace to peace. 
On the other hand, the right of each nation to the 
defence of its own economic interests, and in face 
of the world-shortage hereinafter mentioned, to the 
conservation for its own people of a sufficiency of its 
own supplies of foodstuffs and raw materials, cannot 
be denied. The Conference accordingly urges upon 
the Labour and Socialist Parties of all countries, the 
importance of insisting, in the attitude of the Govern- 
ment toward commercial enterprise, along with the 
necessary control of supplies for its own people, on 
the principle of the open door, and without hostile 
discrimination against foreign countries. But it urges 
equally the importance, not merely of conservation, 
but also of the utmost possible development, by 
appropriate Government action, of the resources of 
every country for the benefit not only of its own people 
but also of the world, and the need for an international 
agreement for the enforcement in all countries of the 
legislation on factory conditions, a maximum eight- 
hour day, the prevention of "sweating" and unhealthy 

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193 

trades necessary to protect the workers against ex- 
ploitation and oppression, and the prohibition of 
night work by women and children. 

THE PROBLEMS OF PEACE 

V. To nlake the world safe for democracy involves 
much more than the prevention of war, either military 
or economic. It will be a device of the capitalist 
interests to pretend that the Treaty of Peace need 
concern itself only with the cessation of the struggles 
of the armed forces and with any necessary terri- 
torial readjustments. The Inter-Allied Conference 
insists that in view of the probable world-wide shortage, 
after the war, of exportable foodstuffs and raw ma- 
terials, and of merchant shipping, it is imperative, in 
order to prevent the most serious hardships, and even 
possible famine, in one country or another, that 
systematic arrangements should be made on an inter- 
national basis for the allocation and conveyance of 
the available exportable surpluses of these commodi- 
ties to the different countries, in proportion, not to 
their purchasing powers, but to their several pressing 
needs; and that, within each country, the Govern- 
ment must for some time maintain its control of the 
most indispensable commodities, in order to secure 
their appropriation, not in a competitive market 
mainly to the richer classes in proportion to their 
means, but, systematically, to meet the most urgent 
needs of the whole community on the principle of 
"no cake for anyone until all have bread." 

Moreover, it cannot but be anticipated that, in 
all countries, the dislocation of industry attendant 
on peace, the instant discharge of millions of muni- 
tion makers and workers in war trades, and the 

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194 

demobilization of millions of soldiers — in the face of 
the scarcity of industrial capital, the shortage of raw 
materials, and the insecurity of commercial enter- 
prise — will, unless prompt and energetic action be 
taken by the several Governments, plunge a large 
part of the wage-earning population into all the mis- 
eries of unemployment more or less prolonged. In 
view of the fact that widespread unemployment in 
any country, like a famine, is an injury not to that 
country alone, but impoverishes also the rest of the 
world, the Conference holds that it is the duty of 
every Government to take immediate action, not 
merely to relieve the unemployed, when unemploy- 
ment has set in, but actually, so far as may be prac- 
ticable, to prevent the occurrence of unemployment. 
It therefore urges upon the Labour Parties of every 
country the necessity of their pressing upon their 
Governments the preparation of plans for the execu- 
tion of all the innumerable public works (such as 
the making and repairing of roads, railways and 
waterways, the erection of schools, and public build- 
ings, the provision of working-class dwellings and 
the reclamation and afforestation of land) that will 
be required in the near future, not for the sake of 
finding measures of relief for the unemployed, but 
with a view to these works being undertaken at 
such a rate in each locality as will suffice, together 
with the various capitalist enterprises that may be 
in progress, to maintain at a fairly uniform level 
year by year, and throughout each year, the aggre- 
gate demand for labour; and thus prevent there 
being any unemployed. It is now known that in this 
way it is quite possible for any Government to prevent, 
if it chooses, the occurrence of any widespread or 

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195 

prolonged involuntary unemployment; which if it is 
now in any country allowed to occur, is as much the 
result of Government neglect as is any epidemic 
disease. 

RESTORATION OF THE DEVASTATED AREAS 
AND REPARATION OF WRONGDOING 

VI. The Inter- Allied Conference holds that one 
of the most imperative duties of all countries imme- 
diately peace is declared will be the restoration, so 
far as may be possible, of the homes, farms, factories, 
public buildings, and means of communication what- 
ever destroyed by war operations; that the restora- 
tion should not be limited to compensation for public 
buildings, capitalist undertakings and material prop- 
erty proved to be destroyed or damaged, but should 
be extended to setting up the wage earners and 
peasants themselves in homes and employment; and 
that to ensure the full and impartial application of 
these principles the assessment and distribution of 
the compensation, so far as the cost is contributed by 
any international fund, should be made under the 
direction of an International Commission. 

The Conference will not be satisfied unless there 
is a full and free judicial investigation into the accu- 
sations made on all sides that particular Governments 
have ordered, and particular officers have exercised, 
acts of cruelty, oppression, violence and theft against 
individual victims, for which no justification can be 
found in the ordinary usages of war. It draws atten- 
tion in particular to the loss of life and property of 
merchant seamen and other non-combatants (including 
women and children) resulting from this inhuman and 
ruthless conduct. It should be part of the conditions 

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of peace that there should be forthwith set up a Court 
of Claims and Accusations, which should investigate 
all such allegations as may be brought before it, 
summon the accused person or Government to answer 
the complaint, pronounce judgment, and award com- 
pensation or damages, payable by the individual 
or Government condemned, to the persons who had 
suffered wrong, or to their dependents. The several 
Governments must be responsible, financially and 
otherwise, for the presentation of the cases of their 
respective nationals to such a Court of Claims and 
Accusations, and for the payment of the compen- 
sation awarded. 

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 

VII. The Inter- Allied Conference is of opinion that 
an International Conference of Labour and Socialist 
organizations, held under proper conditions, would 
at this stage render useful service to world democracy 
by assisting to remove misunderstandings, as well as 
the obstacles which stand in the way of world peace. 

Awaiting the resumption of the normal activities 
of the International Socialist Bureau, we consider 
that an International Conference, held during the 
period of hostilities, should be organized by a com- 
mittee whose impartiality cannot be questioned. It 
should be held in a neutral country, under such con- 
ditions as would inspire confidence; and the Con- 
ference should be fully representative of all the 
Labour and Socialist movement in all the belligerent 
countries accepting the conditions under which the 
Conference is convoked. 

As an essential condition to an International Con- 
ference, the Commission is of opinion that the or- 

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197 

ganizers of the Conference should satisfy themselves 
that all the organizations to be represented put in 
precise form, by a public declaration, their peace 
terms in conformity with the principles "no annexa- 
tions or punitive indemnities, and the right of all 
peoples to self-determination," and that they are 
working with all their power to obtain from their 
Governments the necessary guarantees to apply those 
principles honestly and unreservedly to all questions 
to be dealt with at any official peace conference. 

In view of the vital differences between the Allied 
countries and the Central Powers, the Commission 
is of opinion that it is highly advisable that the Con- 
ference should be used to provide an opportunity 
for the delegates from the respective countries now 
in a state of war to make a full and frank statement 
of their present position and future intentions, and 
to endeavour by mutual agreement to arrange a pro- 
gramme of action for a speedy and democratic peace. 

The Conference is of opinion that the working 
classes, having made such sacrifices during the war, 
are entitled to take part in securing a democratic 
world peace, and that M. Albert Thomas (France), 
M. Emile Vandervelde (Belgium), and Mr. Arthur 
Henderson (Great Britain) be appointed as a Com- 
mission to secure from all the governments a promise 
that at least one representative of Labour and Social- 
ism will be included in the official representation at 
any Government Conference, and to organize a 
Labour and Socialist representation to sit concur- 
rently with the official Conference; further, that no 
country be entitled to more than four representatives 
at such conference. 

l2l] 



198 

The Conference regrets the absence of represen- 
tatives of American Labour and Socialism from the 
Inter-Allied Conference, and urges the importance 
of securing their approval of the decisions reached. 
With this object in view, the Conference agrees that 
a deputation, consisting of one representative from 
France, Belgium, Italy, and Great Britain, together 
with Camille Huysmans (Secretary of the Inter- 
national Socialist Bureau), proceed to the United 
States at once, in order to confer with representatives 
of the American democracy on the whole situation 
of the war. 

The Conference resolves to transmit to the So- 
cialists of the Central Empires and of the nations 
allied with them the memorandum in which the 
Conference has defined the conditions of peace, con- 
formably with the principles of Socialist and inter- 
national justice. The Conference is convinced that 
these conditions will commend themselves on reflec- 
tion to the mind of every Socialist, and the Confer- 
ence asks for the answer of the Socialists of the 
Central Empires, in the hope that these will join 
without delay in a joint effort of the International, 
which has now become more than ever the best and 
the most certain instrument of democracy and peace. 



[22] 



199 



THE ALLIED CAUSE IS THE CAUSE OF 
SOCIALIST INTERNATIONALISM 

Joint Manifesto of the Social Democratic League of America 
and the Jewish Socialist League * 

I 

On the first anniversary of the entrance of the 
United States into the world war, those sections of 
the American SociaHst movement which have given 
their loyal and whole-hearted support to their govern- 
ment and to the Allied cause address their comrades 
in all lands, and state their position with greater detail 
and precision than they have heretofore attempted. 

Nearly four years have elapsed since the outbreak 
of the most cruel and bloody war in all human history. 
For forty-four months the world has been strained 
and torn by the great struggle between the ideals 
and aspirations of modern democracy and the ideals 

♦Editor's Note. The absence of representatives of American 
Labor and Socialism at the Inter-AlHed Labor and Socialist Con- 
ference raises the question of the degree to which the labor elements 
in this country support the war aims adopted by the Conference. 
The significance of their absence was recognized by the Conference, 
which, in its memorandum, "urged the importance of securing their 
approval of the decisions reached." Moreover, a statement made 
recently in the Berlin Vorwdrts to the effect that American Labor 
and Socialism is not supE>orting the war makes it extremely desirable 
to give prominence to the following article. The joint manifesto 
of the Social Democratic League of America and the Jewish Socialist 
League expressly endorses the peace terms defined in the memoran- 
dum, which it recognizes to be practically identical with the war 
aims of President Wilson. It was prepared by John Spargo, Chair- 
man and J. G. Phelps Stokes, Secretary of the Social Democratic 
League; and William Edlin, Chairman and Henry L. Slobodin, 
Secretary, of the Jewish Socialist' League. 

[23] 



20O 



and aspirations of medieval autocracy. All the genius 
and technical equipment of the twentieth century- 
have been drawn upon by both sides of the conflict; 
whole provinces have been devastated; nations have 
been destroyed and millions of lives have been sacri- 
ficed. To the destructive work of war the nations 
have given treasure and toil, which, had it been other- 
wise used, would have freed them from the curse of 
involuntary poverty and its myriad attendant evils. 

We declare it to be the first duty of all Socialists 
everywhere — a duty Implicit in our Internationalist 
faith— to find the causes of this war and to place the 
responsibility for its occurrence where it justly belongs. 
We cannot evade the challenge and be loyal to So- 
cialist internationalism. With our comrades of the 
Socialist party of France, we declare that we cannot 
accept the hypocritical statement that all the govern- 
ments of the belligerent nations are equally responsible 
for the war. That formula, like the declaration of 
the American Socialist party that the war was not 
caused "by the policy or Institutions of any single 
nation," Is a stupid and fatuous contradiction of 
history and an affront to the intelligence. 

Nor can we stultify ourselves by offering as an 
explanation of the war the silly hypothesis that it 
came as the logical and Inevitable result of the capi- 
talist system. The facts do not support this theory. 
We are not unmindful that capitalism tends to the 
development of national commercial rivalries, which 
provoke hatred and thus sow seeds of war. Never- 
theless, remembering this fact, we insist that the out- 
break of the present war in 19 14 was not due to the 
capitalist system, but to the madness of dynastic 
imperialism. 

I24I 



20I 



We assert that the statement that the war "was 
caused by the conflict of capitalist interests in the 
European countries," with which statement the So- 
ciaHst Party of this country has attempted to justify 
its reactionary position, is absurdly untrue. It had 
long been realized by the leaders of international com- 
merce and finance that war must be unprofitable to 
the capitalist classes of all nations, those of the vic- 
torious nations as well as those of the defeated. The 
capitalist classes of all lands were, as a whole, as much 
opposed to war, and as earnest in their efforts for peace, 
as were the workers. They had no interests which 
could be better served by war than by peace. They 
knew that war must mean for them heavy burdens of 
taxation, risking of the loss of profitable markets and 
the perils of social revolution. Certain sections of 
the capitalist class in each country doubtless desired 
war ; but nowhere were these in a position to dominate 
the capitalist class as a whole or the government. 
Even in Germany, as reference to the newspapers of 
the time will prove, there was just as much opposi- 
tion to the idea of war among the capitalists as there 
was among the proletariat. Obliquity to the plain 
record of history is not a Socialist virtue ! 

We assert that the war was caused by the imperialist 
vision of the Hohenzollern dynasty, using the worm- 
eaten Hapsburg dynasty as its wretched tool. This 
is the verdict likewise of the Socialists of all lands. 
Thus declared the Socialists of Great Britain, Belgium, 
France and Russia, at the conference of the Socialist 
and Labor Parties of the allied nations on February 
14, 1 91 5. The United Socialist party of France so 
declared in its reply to the Dutch and Scandinavian 
comrades in connection with the abortive German- 

I25] 



202 



inspired Stockholm Conference last year. The Italian 
Socialist party, in its memorable rebuke to the Ger- 
man Socialist "comrades" who sought to corrupt them, 
squarely placed the responsibility for war upon the 
Austrian and German Empires — "the rampart of Euro- 
pean reaction." It is well known that on the very eve 
of the actual outbreak of hostilities, Vorwdrts, the 
leading organ of the German Social Democratic party, 
took the same view. Finally, the Proclamation issued 
by the German Social Democratic party, on the 25th 
of July, 1 9 14, plainly declared that the war fury was 
unchained by Austrian imperialism, and that its 
demands upon Serbia, "more brutal than have ever 
been put to an independent state in the world's 
history," were "intended deliberately to provoke war." 

There is abundant evidence, freely accessible to all 
mankind, that the German Emperor and his satellites 
had long cherished the imperial vision of a vast empire 
stretching from the North Sea to the Persian Gulf, 
and dominating the whole world. The real reason for 
the brutal ultimatum to Serbia, and the summary 
rejection of the conciliatory policy of the government 
of Serbia by Austria-Hungary, was the fact that a 
free and independent Serbia was necessarily an insur- 
mountable obstacle to the realization of that dynastic 
vision. 

The strengthening of a free and independent Serbia 
has long been regarded by internationalists as a neces- 
sary condition for the development of European 
democracy. Every growth of Serbian power and inde- 
pendence of necessity increased the influence of west- 
ern European democracy and culture in southeastern 
Europe, and brought the leaven of that influence 
to the gates of the three great autocracies — Austria- 

[26] 



203 

Hungary, Russia, and Turkey. As far back as the 
middle of the last century the great leaders of Euro- 
pean democracy — among them Karl Marx — recog- 
nized that fundamental fact. 

The Balkan wars of 191 2 and 1913 greatly strength- 
ened the power and influence of Serbia among the 
Balkan nations, and to that extent menaced the mittel- 
europa dream of the Hohenzollern dynasty. Serbia's 
territory was extended as was her prestige among the 
Balkan peoples, and thus strengthened she blocked 
the road from Berlin to Bagdad. So far as Austria- 
Hungary was concerned, Serbia's ascendency in the 
Balkans had another meaning; it inspired the seven 
and a half millions of South Slavs in that artificial 
"ramshackle Empire" to new struggles for liberation 
from the thraldom they so bitterly hated. It was, 
therefore, a menace to the Empire. It was to the 
interest of the Hapsburg dynasty to humble Serbia 
and break her power at the first opportunity. And 
because it was to its interests to remove Serbia from 
its pathway to world-empire, the Hohenzollern dy- 
nasty used the Hapsburg fears for its own purposes 
and incited the declaration of war on Serbia by 
Austria-Hungary. 

These are the historic political factors which explain 
the readiness with which Austria-Hungary seized upon 
the assassination at Serajevo in June, 1914, as an 
excuse for presenting its brutal ultimatum. That the 
object of this ultimatum was to provoke war, there 
can be no question. The testimony of the German 
White Book on this point is conclusive. From the 
same source we learn that the German Imperial 
Government forced its vassal, the Government of 

[27] 



204 

Austria-Hungary, to reject the reply of Serbia, which 
was a noble bid for peace. 

The demands made upon Serbia were intended to 
be rejected. Austria-Hungary, instigated by Ger- 
many, wanted war. If Serbia had abjectly conceded 
every demand made upon her, Austria-Hungary would 
still have made war against her because German 
imperial plans required it. As it was, Serbia conceded 
all the demands made upon her save two, and these 
she did not reject; but proposed, as an alternative, 
that they be submitted to an international court 
of arbitration. 1 Humility could not go farther without 
reaching the abject surrender of craven cowardice. 
Serbia took her stand upon the basis of civilization 
and morality. Her foes took their stand upon the 
basis of barbarism and brute force. 

As a matter of historical justice it may be well to 
remind ourselves that the assassination at Serajevo 
was an incident in the revolution of the South Slavs 
against Austrian oppression. Until the outbreak of 
the great war there was no doubt among the Socialists 
of the world as to where our sympathies lay in that 
revolution. If we withheld our support from the 
Serbs and Croats in Austria-Hungary in their threats 
of revolution, it was only because we feared that a 
revolution to establish the political independence 
of Serbs, Croats, and other South Slavs would lead 
to a European war. Certainly, we had no sympathy 
for Austria-Hungary. Certainly, also, once the war 
issue had been raised by Austria-Hungary there could 
be no question that the sympathies of all sincere 
Socialists must be with the Serbs. Their national 
aspirations might not justify plunging the civilized 
world into war, but once war became inevitable the 

I28] 



205 

whole logic of our Socialist position compelled us to 
take the side of the Serbs and to hope for the reali- 
zation of their national aspirations. A victory by 
Austria-Hungary would be a calamity. 

The Central Empires deliberately provoked the 
war for the furtherance of their own selfish purposes. 
The admitted facts are capable of no other inter- 
pretation for which sincerity and intelligence can be 
claimed. The triumph of these imperialistic powers 
would mean disaster to the whole of Europe, and, 
indeed, the entire civilized world. We agree with our 
comrades of the Italian Socialist Party that such a 
result of the war would necessarily mean "the triumph 
of military absolutism in its most brutal expression." 
We agree also with the declaration of the Conference 
of the Socialist and Labor parties of the Allied nations 
that "a victory for German imperialism would be the 
defeat and destruction of democracy and liberty in 
Europe." 

From the first beginnings of Socialist international- 
ism the Central Empires have been its special and 
particular enemies. Even more than the brutal and 
corrupt Romanoffs have we feared the Hohenzol- 
lerns and the Hapsburgs. As soon as the war clouds 
gathered over Europe following the tragedy of Sera- 
jevo it became evident that the Central Empires 
were bent upon the destruction of the international- 
ism already achieved and incorporated into the politi- 
cal life of the world. 

Germany, acting as the ally of Austria-Hungary, 
her vassal and tool, did not hurl her legions against 
Serbia, nor even against Serbia's ally, Russia. With 
wanton and brutal disregard of the laws and conven- 
tions which she herself had helped to make, she threw 

[29l 



206 



her forces against a small and weak friendly nation, 
which was no party to the quarrel, which had no 
belligerent purpose or intentions, and which desired 
only to be left alone to live in peace as a neutral. 

The invasion of Belgium and Luxembourg by the 
German armies, and the savage barbarism with which 
the heroic defenders of Belgian neutrality and inde- 
pendence were crushed, rank among the greatest 
crimes of history. For these crimes, which menaced 
the whole fabric of internationalism, no one worthy 
of being called a Socialist can find palliation or excuse. 
If the power responsible for the crimes should tri- 
umph, the cause of Socialist internationalism would 
be crushed to earth. 

II 

The conduct of the Socialist parties of Germany and 
Austria-Hungary cannot be passed over in silence. 
We must demand that at the first general Inter- 
national Socialist Congress which is convened that 
conduct be exposed and fittingly condemned. By 
their support of their governments the Socialist parties 
of the Central Empires became the co-partners of the 
HohenzoUerns and the Hapsburgs, accessories to their 
infamous crimes against mankind. They betrayed 
the cause of international Socialism, betrayed all the 
small nations to the despotism of the arrogant sword- 
rattling autocracies, and constituted themselves part 
of the most brutal, reactionary and lawless imperial- 
ism in modern history. Such men cannot rightly 
hold any place in the Socialist International. 

The part played by the German Social Democracy 
cannot be described as other than infamous. The 
only Germans worthy to bear the name of Socialists 

l30] 



207 

are the members of the small but courageous minority- 
represented by such comrades as Karl Liebknecht, 
Rosa Luxemburg, and George Ledebour. For the 
majority, led by such men as Scheidemann, Sudekum, 
David, Legien, and others, no condemnation can be 
too severe. This majority has been the willing and 
servile tool of the government, and the accomplice 
of the assassins of Potsdam. 

Its leaders have even stooped so low as to play the 
despicable part of bribing and corrupting agents of 
their government. The attempt to buy the support 
of the Italian Socialists, indignantly exposed and 
condemned by the Italian comrades, is one example 
of the depth to which they have descended. The 
despicable role of "Comrade Helfand," internationally 
famous under his pseudonym, "Parvus," is likewise 
well known. German imperial autocracy found its 
most unscrupulous agents among the trusted leaders 
of German Social Democracy! 

Even more sinister than such conduct as we have 
referred to has been the part which the German 
Socialists have played as propagandists of anti-mili- 
tarism. For years they have urged upon the Socialists 
of other lands, particularly of England, France and 
Russia, the duty of vigorously opposing militarism 
and military preparedness. Never have they seriously 
asserted themselves against these things in Germany, 
however. On the eve of the outbreak of the war when 
the issue of war or peace hung in the balance, the 
German party sent Herr Muller, of the Partie-Vor- 
stand at the head of a delegation to the French 
Socialist parliamentary group to beg the French com- 
rades to vote against all military appropriations, or 

[31] 



208 



at least absent themselves and thus manifest their 
opposition to their government. 

The French Socialists — be it said to their eternal 
honor — readily pledged themselves not to vote any 
war credits until the French Government should pro- 
vide them with absolutely satisfactory proof of its 
sincere efforts to maintain peace and prevent war. 
They undertook not to vote for any appropriation for 
offensive war of any kind. They made it quite clear 
to Muller and his associates, and to Comrade Huys- 
mans, secretary of the International Socialist Bureau, 
who accompanied the delegation, that they would 
not withhold their support from their Government 
if France were attacked by Germany and invaded. 
In that case they would fight. The French comrades 
thus took their stand upon the established and cher- 
ished principles of Socialist internationalism. 

Muller and his colleagues could not meet satis- 
factorily the demand of the French comrades for a 
similar pledge on behalf of the German Social Demo- 
crats. In vain did the French comrades urge that the 
German Social Democrats were in honor bound to 
give reciprocal assurances. It was evident then, before 
the declaration of war, that the German Social Demo- 
crats would support their Government, even in a war 
of aggression and invasion. Already they were assist- 
ing their military masters by using the Socialist 
movement and its idealism to divide France, weaken 
her morale and so prepare the way for her defeat. 
They did not hesitate to prostitute the Socialist 
organization of Germany by making it an adjunct 
to the German military machine. 

It is well known that when Jaures returned to 
Paris from the extraordinary meeting of the Inter- 

(32 ] 



209 

national Socialist Bureau, held at Brussels on the 
29th of July, 1914, he was heartbroken because of 
his failure to obtain from the German leaders a 
satisfactory pledge that they would refuse to support 
their Government in the event of its making an 
aggressive war on Belgium or France. He realized 
then that his heroic efforts for peace, his wonderful 
campaigns against military preparedness, had served 
only too well the cause of Prussian militarism — thanks 
to the treachery of the German "comrades." 

In every country the German Socialist propagan- 
dists have gone, insidiously serving military abso- 
lutism. Their intrigues in Switzerland, Holland, and 
the Scandinavian countries have been notorious. They 
have undermined the new Socialist Republic of Rus- 
sia, delivering it as a prize to their Kaiser. Long 
before the war started they were engaged in this 
nefarious work; there is little reason to doubt that 
the visit of Scheidemann to this country the year 
before the war began had for its real object an "under- 
standing" with prominent members of the Socialist 
Party on the subject of the attitude to be taken by 
the party in the event of a war in which Germany 
would be engaged. The German Crown Prince, Gen- 
eral von Hindenburg and Admiral von Tirpitz have 
as much right to participate in the congresses of the 
Socialist International as have such "Socialists" as 
Scheidemann, Sudekum, and David. 

In all the cynical and brutal literature of Prussian 
imperialism there is nothing more shameful than the 
speech by David in the Reichstag, soon after the war 
began, in which he stated the function of the Socialists. 
He said : 

[33I 



210 



"Germany must squeeze her enemies with a pair 
of pincers, namely, the miHtary pincer and the pacifist 
pincer. The German armies must continue to fight 
vigorously whilst the German Socialists encourage and 
stimulate pacifism among Germany's enemies." 

For such "Socialists" we have only an inexpressible 
contempt and loathing. 

Ill 

That disregard of international law and morality 
which characterized Germany's conduct in begin- 
ning the war has continued throughout. . Each month 
has made increasingly manifest her determination to 
destroy every vestige of internationalism other than 
the brutal internationalism of imperialism. Armed 
with the science and technical efficiency of the 
twentieth century, Germany's moral attitude has 
been that of the fourteenth century. Every restric- 
tion which the will and conscience of civilized man- 
kind had imposed upon the makers of war, she has 
repudiated and assailed. "Be as terrible as Attila's 
Huns," was the command of the German Emperor 
to his Chinese Expeditionary Forces in 1900; in 
this war Germany has been guilty of brutality to 
which even Attila never descended. We do not refer 
to the barbarous acts of individuals, the inevitable 
products of war madness, but to the systematic 
organized "frightfulness" deUberately planned by the 
German general staff. 

German forces on sea and land have made war upon 
non-combatants as savagely as upon combatants. The 
peaceful peasant following the plow has been attacked 
exactly as the armed soldier is attacked. The fisher- 
man in his Httle trawler, peacefully pursuing his 

I34] 



211 



vocation has been attacked by Germany's naval forces 
and treated as though he were a combatant. Non- 
combatants, even women and children, passengers 
on neutral ships, have been subject to the perils of 
destruction which humanity and international law 
have long restricted to the armed forces of belliger- 
ents. The inhabitants of unfortified cities have been 
slaughtered and denied the rights of evacuation and 
surrender long respected by civilized nations. The 
mother nursing her baby has been denied the immunity 
from attack which the conscience of civilized mankind 
provided. In a word, Prussianism has waged war 
against internationalism in all its essential forms. 

The United States of America was forced into the 
war by Germany's wanton assaults. We did not want 
war. The Government and the people of this Re- 
pubHc strove to remain outside the conflict long after 
the real aim of Germany's rulers was manifest, and 
even after the torpedoing of the Lusitania made it 
apparent to all the world that Germany would not 
permit us to remain neutral and free. She demanded 
that we depart from the usages and laws of nations, 
and, by refusing to permit the Entente Allies to 
purchase arms and ammunition from our manufac- 
turers, become in fact her ally and make her victory 
certain. 

When our Government refused to commit this in- 
famous crime against internationalism, Germany, 
without the formality of declaring war upon our nation, 
in fact made war upon it. Our ships were sunk at 
sea without warning, and our citizens — civilians pur- 
suing their lawful and peaceful business — were foully 
murdered on the high seas by German naval forces. 
Our land was filled with spies and plotters; industrial 

l35l 



212 



plants were wrecked and the lives of many working 
people were destroyed. Even while professing friend- 
ship for this nation, and pretending to be desirous 
of peace, Germany was in fact waging war against 
us in the same brutal, barbarous and lawless manner 
as she had from the beginning made war against her 
avowed and acknowledged enemies. 

Many of us, while realizing that the triumph of 
the Central Empires would be a great blow to the 
cause of international Socialism, struggled, neverthe- 
less, to keep this nation from entering the war. 
We believed that by refusing to be drawn into the 
conflict the Government of the United States could 
render a great service to the cause of peace. When, 
however, the repeated acts of aggression by Germany 
caused our Congress to recognize that a state of 
war existed between this republic and the German 
Empire, we could not fail to support our Government 
for precisely the same reasons as the Socialists of 
Belgium and France supported their Governments. 
To have done otherwise would have been a betrayal 
of our Socialist faith. 

With entire confidence we assert that the action of 
the United States Congress in authorizing war against 
Germany was a great service to the cause of human 
liberty. No nobler statement of democratic ideals 
can be found in all our international Socialist litera- 
ture than the great address of the President of the 
United States on April 2, 191 7. Historic justice 
demands that Socialists of the entire world acknowl- 
edge that President Wilson has been a better spokes- 
man of Internationalism than the Socialist Inter- 
national itself. Never in all human history has a 
man occupying a position of equal eminence and 

[36] 



213 

influence so bravely and eloquently championed the 
cause of democracy, the rights of oppressed national- 
ities and the ideals of Internationalism. We rejoice 
that this fact has been so fully recognized by our 
comrades of other lands, notably by the recent Con- 
ference of the Socialist and Labor Parties of the 
Allied Nations. This is in striking contrast to the 
characterization of President Wilson by the official 
organ of the Socialist Party of America, as "that 
maniac in the White House." For us, as American 
Socialists, there is no other means of serving the 
cause of Internationalism than supporting with all 
our moral and material might the splendid efforts 
of the President of the United States. To our com- 
rades of other lands we send the assurance that the 
exalted idealism of President Wilson is shared by 
the entire nation. 

The Socialist Party of the United States cannot 
justly claim to speak for American Socialists generally. 
It represents only the sectarian and sterile dogmatism, 
corrupted and dominated by all that Prussianism 
represents. It has, from the beginning of the great 
world war, sometimes openly and more often covertly 
condoned and defended the betrayal of International- 
ism by the German Social Democracy. With a degree 
of uniformity as significant as it is remarkable, it 
has upheld the contentions of the German Imperial 
Government in the long controversy with the Gov- 
ernment of the United States, it has accepted every 
miserable evasion and excuse of the German Socialist 
majority, and has been silent concerning the outrages 
committed by the German barbarians. Whatever 
their intent, the responsible spokesmen of the So- 

[37] 



214 

cialist Party of America have been in fact the allies 
of German militarism and autocracy. 

Because of these things many thousands of sincere 
Socialists have been compelled to withdraw from the 
party and to establish new organizations. They can- 
not and will not acknowledge the Socialist Party as 
representing their views, their ideals, and their faith. 
Therefore it is that the organizations we represent 
and other Socialist bodies in this country must claim, 
and must in justice receive, a place in the Socialist 
International and the right to oppose in the Socialist 
International the reactionary and stupid policies of 
the American Socialist Party. 

IV 

We believe that the Socialists of the Allied Nations 
are under moral obligations to strive with united 
energy for such a peace as will insure the safety 
of mankind from future aggressions on the part 
of the Central Empires or other despotic powers. We 
approve the peace terms contained in the program 
adopted by the Inter-Allied Socialist and Labor Con- 
ferences. That program, as its authors have pointed 
out, is substantially identical with that outlined by 
the President of the United States in his address to 
Congress on January 8, 1918. We hold it to be self- 
evident that the Labor and Socialist organizations 
of the Allied Nations are in logic and morale bound 
to give their whole-hearted support to any and all 
governments adopting these war aims. For so in 
America loyalty to the Socialist cause requires us 
to give our whole-hearted support to President Wilson 
and to our Government. Our first duty is to win the 
war. There can be no peace until the Prussian mil- 

I38] 



215 

itary system has been definitely and completely de- 
feated. 

In his great address President Wilson said 
What we demand in this war, therefore, is nothing peculiar 
to ourselves. It is that the world be made fit and safe to live 
in; and particularly that it be made safe for every peace- 
loving nation which, like our own, wishes to live its own life, 
determine its own institutions, be assured of justice and 
fair dealings by the other peoples of the world, as against 
force and selfish aggression. All the peoples of the world 
are in effect partners in this interest, and for our own part 
we see very clearly that unless justice be done to others it 
will not be done to us. 

The program of the world's peace, therefore, is our program, 
and that program, the only possible program, as we see it, is 
this: 

I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which 
there shall be no private international understandings of any 
kind; but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in 
the public view. 

II. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside 
territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the 
seas may be closed in whole or in part by international 
action for the enforcement of international covenants. 

III. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic 
barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade con- 
ditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and 
associating themselves for its maintenance. 

IV. Adequate guarantees givpn and taken that national 
armaments will reduce to the lowest point consistent with 
domestic safety. 

V. Free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjust- 
ment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance 
of the principle that in determining all such questions of 
sovereignty the interests of the population concerned must 
have equal weight with the equitable claims of the Govern- 
ment whose title is to be determined. 

l39l 



2l6 



VI. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a 
settlement of all questions affecting Russia as will secure the 
best and freest cooperation of the other nations of the world 
in obtaining for her an unhampered and unembarrassed 
opportunity for the independent determination of her own 
political development and national policy, and assure her 
of a sincere welcome into the society of free nations under 
institutions of her own choosing; and, more than a welcome, 
assistance also of every kind that she may need and may 
herself desire. The treatment accorded Russia by her sister 
nations in the months to come will be the acid test of their 
good will, of their comprehension of her needs as distinguished 
from their own interests, and of their intelligent and unselfish 
sympathy. 

VII. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacu- 
ated and restored, without any attempt to limit the sover- 
eignty which she enjoys in common with all other free nations. 
No other single act will serve as this will serve to restore 
confidence among the nations in the laws which they have 
themselves set and determined for the government of their 
relations with one another. Without this healing act the 
whole structure and validity of international law is forever 
impaired. 

VIII. All French territory should be freed and the invaded 
portions restored, and the wrong done to France by Prussia 
in 1 87 1 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled 
the peace of the world for nearly fifty years, should be righted, 
in order that peace may once more be made secure in the 
interest of all. 

IX. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be 
effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality. 

X. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among 
the nations we wish to see safe-guarded and assured, should 
be accorded the freest opportunity of autonomous develop- 
ment. 

XI. Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacu- 
ated; occupied territories accorded free and secure access to 

I40] 



217 

the sea; and the relations of the several Balkan States to 
one another determined by friendly counsel along historically 
established lines of allegiance and nationality; and inter- 
national guarantees of the political and economic independence 
and territorial integrity of the several Balkan States should be 
entered into.* 

XII. The Turkish portions of the present Ottoman empire 
should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the other na- 
tionalities which are now under Turkish rule should be assured 
an undoubted security of life and an absolutely unmolested 
opportunity of autonomous development, and the Dardanelles 
should be permanently opened as a free passage to the ships 
and commerce of all nations under international guarantees. 

XIII. An independent Polish state should be erected, 
which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably 
Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure 
access to the sea, and whose political and economic inde- 
pendence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by 
international covenant. 

XIV. A general association of nations must be formed 
under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual 
guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity 
to great and small States alike. 

In regard to these essential rectifications of wrong and 
assertions of right, we feel ourselves to be intimate partners 
of all the Governments and peoples associated together 
against the imperialists. We cannot be separated in interest 
or divided in purpose. We stand together until the end. 

For such arrangements and covenants we are willing to 
fight and to continue to fight until they are achieved; but 
only because we wish the right to prevail and desire a just 
and stable peace, such as can be secured only by removing 
the chief provocations to war, which this program does re- 

*NoTE. Karl Marx advocated in 1853 in the New York Tribune 
a federjxtion of the Slavonic and Hellenic nationalities of the Balkans 
into one State as a solution of the Balkan problem. This plan should 
be given serious consideration. 

I41] 



2l8 



move. We have no jealousy of German greatness, and there 
is nothing in this program that impairs it. We grudge her 
no achievement or distinction of learning or of pacific enter- 
prise such as have made her record very bright and very 
enviable. We do not wish to injure her or to block in any way 
her legitimate influence or power. We do not wish to fight 
her either with arms or with hostile arrangements of trade, 
if she is willing to associate herself with us and the other 
peace-loving nations of the world in covenants of justice and 
law and fair dealing. We wish her only to accept a place 
of equality among the peoples of the world — the new world 
in which we now live — instead of a place of mastery. 

Neither do we presume to suggest to her any alteration or 
modification of her institutions. But it is necessary, we must 
frankly say, and necessary as a preliminary to any intelligent 
dealings with her on our part, that we should know whom 
her spokesmen speak for when they speak to us, whether for 
the Reichstag majority or for the military party and the 
men whose creed is imperial domination. 

There is one important part of the war aims which 
requires a clearer elucidation — the self-determination 
of nationalities. The Inter- Allied program states: 
"Any adjustment of boundaries that becomes neces- 
sary must be based exclusively upon the desire of 
the people concerned," meaning, apparently, the people 
within these boundaries. There is another principle 
of international justice which should be given recog- 
nition. A people occupying the narrow strip of a 
coast bordering on a great sea which serves as an 
outlet for a continent cannot claim exclusive sover- 
eignty over the coastal territory. A people occupying 
a territory of great natural resources cannot claim 
jurisdiction over them to the exclusion of the rest of 
mankind. Whether in relations within a state or 
international relations, all rights of groups or even 

U2I 



219 

of nations must be held in harmony with the rights 
of mankind. It will devolve on the Labor and So- 
cialist International to advance and maintain this 
principle as a doctrine of International Law — that 
the original and ultimate title to all natural wealth 
and resources, no matter where situated, is a right 
in which all mankind equally share. 

There is another important phase in the self-deter- 
mination of nationalities which should be given recog- 
nition in the interests of permanent peace. It is not 
in the interest of democracy and peace, not in the 
interest of progress of mankind, to see the large 
states broken up into a great number of smaller 
states. The endless multiplication of boundaries 
and frontiers with the resultant cultivation of local 
prejudices and the spirit of exclusion, is against every 
idea of internationalism. Merely because a certain 
small nationality clamors for a Chinese Wall round 
the territory which it inhabits is no reason why the 
much greater interests of mankind, including the 
true interest of the nationality in question, should 
not be considered. Should we recognize the claims 
of Esthonia, Livonia and Lithuania, altogether num- 
bering five million people, to exclusive sovereignty 
over the territory of the Baltic coast of what was 
heretofore Russia and thereby deprive a nation of 
one hundred and fifty million people from access to 
the sea? Indeed, the principle of freedom of the seas 
should be supplemented by the no less important 
principle of freedom of access to the sea. This is 
another principle of International Law which the 
Labor and Socialist International should vigorously 
urge and defend. 

[43I 



220 



When closely examined, it will be found that the 
principle of self-determination will apply in its full 
meaning to states, natural or historical. Applied to 
nationalities or territories within the state, the prin- 
ciple of self-determination would mean a relation to 
the state somewhat similar to the relation of the 
American States to the Federal Government. 

Though unutterable wrongs suffered by the Ar- 
menian race will never be repaid, the atrocities and 
cruelties inflicted on this unfortunate people will 
forever remain a heavy weight on the conscience of 
mankind; that such wrongs should have been per- 
petrated by the connivance of a civilized nation makes 
indeed all the boasts of our civilization seem sham 
and empty. The Labor-Socialist International should 
leave nothing undone or unmoved to atone at least 
partially for the wrongs inflicted on the Armenians. 
Armenia should be placed under International pro- 
tectorate, independent of Turkey. Effective measures 
should be taken to secure to the Armenian people 
within the territory of Armenia safety from inter- 
ference by the Turks and other fanatical peoples. 

A similar protectorate should be extended over 
Palestine, which should be formed into a free state, 
securing an opportunity to those of the Jewish people 
that desire to do so to work, in cooperation with the 
other inhabitants, for the restoration of Palestine as 
a Jewish home land. And the Jews in all countries 
should, for all time, be guaranteed equal rights with 
all other citizens in all matters of individual and 

social life. 

V 

For reasons already set forth, we cannot approve 
of any conference with representatives of the German 

I44I 



221 



or Austrian Socialist organizations until the end of 
the war. We whole-heartedly approve of the action 
of the executive council of the American Federation 
of Labor in this particular. The German and Aus- 
trian Socialists are such in name only. They are not 
our comrades. They are traitors to our cause. When 
the war is ended and Kaiser ism overthrown, there 
must be a frank judgment of the German and Austrian 
Socialist movements by the International. Judged 
by its conduct during the war, and especially by its 
base betrayal of the Russian Revolution, the German 
Social Democracy must be branded as an enemy of the 
working class of the world, including the working class 
of Germany. We are compelled to j udge i t by its deeds 
and not by its declarations. Indeed, the German 
Social Democracy was a full and active partner of 
the Hohenzollerns and the junkers in all their crimes 
against mankind. This applies with full force to the 
Austrian Social Democracy also, except that the op- 
pressed non-German nationalities of Austria are free 
from guilt. Neither the German nor the Austrian So- 
cialist parties should be admitted to a Socialist Inter- 
national until they have emancipated themselves and 
given satisfactory evidence of loyalty to Socialist in- 
ternationalism. By admitting them earlier and giving 
them countenance the International would become 
a sharer in their treason. 

We believe that there should be a constant inter- 
change of opinion by the Socialists of the Allied 
Nations through conferences and otherwise; but not 
with those who have betrayed our common cause. 
We believe that there should be consistent energetic 
action for the furtherance of our Socialist aims in our 
respective countries as far as that can be done without 

[45] 



222 



impairing our military efficiency. We send our fraternal 
salutations to our comrades in all the Allied Nations 
and to the faithful battling minority comrades in 
the enemy countries and pledge ourselves that we 
will not withhold from the Allied cause any service 
or sacrifice that may be required of us as our part of 
the price of human freedom. 
April 6, 1 91 8. 



[46] 



LIST OF PUBLICATIONS 

Nos. i-ios (April, 1907, to August, 1916). Including papers by Baron 
d'Estournelles de Constant, George Trumbull Ladd, Elihu Root, Barrett 
Wendell, Charles E. Jefferson, Seth Low, John Bassett Moore, William James, 
Andrew Carnegie, Pope Pius X, Heinrich Lammasch, Norman Angell, Charles 
W. Eliot, Sir Oliver Lodge, Lord Haldane, Alfred H. Fried, and others; also, 
a series of official documents dealing with the European War. A list of titles 
and authors will be sent on application. 

106. The Proposal for a League to Enforce Peace. Affirmative — ^William 

Howard Taft; Negative — ^William Jennings Bryan. September, 1916. 

107. Nationality and Beyond, by Nicholas Murray Butler. Do We Want 

Half the Hemisphere? By Brander Matthews. October, 1916. 

108. War and Human Progress, by James Bryce. November, 19 16. 

109. The Principle of Nationality, by Theodore Ruyssen. December, 1916. 
no. Official Documents Looking Toward Peace. Series L January, 1917. 

111. Official Documents Looking Toward Peace. Series I L February, 1917. 

112. What Is a Nationality? Part II of The Principle of Nationality, by 

Theodore Ruyssen. March, 1917. 

113. The Bases of an Enduring Peace, by Franklin H. Giddings. April, 1917. 
114., Documents Regarding the European War. Series No. XV. 

The Entry of the United States. May, 1917. 

115. The War and the Colleges, from an Address to Representatives of Col- 

leges and Universities, delivered by the Hon. Newton D. Baker, May s, 
I9I7- June, 1917- 

116. The Treaty Rights of Aliens, by William Howard Taft. July, 1917. 

117. The Effect of Democracy on International Law, by Elihu Root. August, 

1917. 

118. The Problems of Nationality, Part III of The Principle of Nationality, 

by Theodore Ruyssen. September, 191 7. 

119. Official Documents Looking Toward Peace, Series in. October, I9i7. 

120. The United States and Great Britain, by Walter H. Page. The British 

Commonwealth of Nations, by Lieutenant-General J. C. Smuts. 
America and Freedom, by Viscount Grey. November, 1917. 

121. The Conference on the Foreign Relations of the United States, held at 

Long Beach, N. Y., May 28-June i, 1917- An Experiment in Educa- 
tion, by Stephen Pierce Duggan. December, 1917- ' 

122. The Aims of the War: Letter of Lord Lansdowne to the London Daily 

Telegraph, November 29, 19 17. Reply by Cosmos printed in the New 
York Times, December i, 191 7. The President's Address to the Con- 
gress, December 4, 1917. January, 1918. 

[47] 



123. Victory or Defeat: No Half-way House, speech delivered by the Rt. Hon. 

David Lloyd George, December 14, 1917; British Labor's War Aims, 
statement adopted at the Special National Labor Conference at Central 
Hall, Westm.'nster, December 28, 1917; Great Britain's War Aims, 
speech delivered by the Rt. Hon. David Lloyd George at the Trade 
Union Conference on Man Power, January 5, 1918; Labor's After-War 
Economic Policy, by the Rt. Hon. Arthur Henderson, M.P.; America's 
Terms of Settlement, address by President Wilson to the Congress, 
January 8, 1918. British Labor Party's Address to the Russian People, 
January 15, 1918. February, 1918. 

124. The United States and Japan: Text of the Root-Takahira Understanding 

of November 30, 1908, and of the Lansing-Ishii Agreement of Novem- 
ber 3, 1917; Japan and the United States, address by the Hon. Elihu 
Root, October i, 1917; The Lansing-Ishii Agreement, address by the 
Hon. James L. Slayden, November 15, 1917; What of Our Fears of 
Japan? by Kenneth S. Latourette, March, 19 18. 

125. The Awakening of the German People, by Otfried Nippold. April, 191 8. 

126. The Anniversary of America's Entry into the War: an address deliv- 

ered by President Wilson at Baltimore, Maryland, April 6, 1918; an 
article written for The Daily Chronicle of London by Professor Gilbert 
Murray, May, 1918. 

Special Bulletins: 

The War and Peace Problem, Material for the Study of International 

Polity, by John Mez. February, 191S. 
Syllabus of Lectures on the War and Peace Problem for the Study of 

International Polity, by John Mez. February, 1915. 
A Dozen Truths About Pacifism, by Alfred H. Fried. March, 1915. 
A Brief Outline of the Nature and Aims of Pacifism, by Alfred H. Fried. 

April, 1915. 
Internationalism. A i/st of Current Periodicals selected and annotated 

by Frederick C Hicks. May, 1915. 
Is Commerce War? By Henry Raymond Mussey. January, 1916. 
Peace Literature of the War, by John Mez. January, 19 16. 

Is There a Substitute for Force in International Relations? by Suh Hu. 
Prize essay, International Polity Club Competition, awarded June, 
1916. 

Labor's War Aims: Memorandum on War Aims, adopted by the Inter- 
Allied Labor and Socialist Conference, February 22, 1918; The Allied 
Cause is the Cause of Socialist Internationalism: Joint Manifesto of 
the Social Democratic League of America and the Jewish Socialist 
League. June, 1918. 

Copies of the above, so far as they can be spared, will be sent to libraries 
and educational institutions for permanent preservation postpaid upon receipt 
of a request addressed to the Secretary of the American Association for Inter- 
national Conciliation. 

A charge of five cents' will be made for copies sent to individuals. Regular 
subscription rate twenty-five cents for one year, or one dollar for five years. 

I48I 



AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR INTERNATIONAL CONCILIATION 



Executive Committee 

Nicholas Murray Butler Stephen Henry Olin 

James Speyer Robert A. Franks 

James L. Slayden George Blumenthal 

Joseph P. Grace Gano Dunn 

Thomas W. Lamont 



Acting Secretary 
Henry S. Haskell 

Director of Interamerican Division 
Peter H. Goldsmith 

Correspondents 

Francis W. Hirst, London, England 
T. MiYAOKA, Tokio, Japan 



Organizing Secretaries for South America 

Benjamin Garcia Victorica, American Legation, Buenos Aires 
A. G. Araujo Jorge, Foreign Office, Rio de Janeiro 
Juan Bautista de Lavalle, San Pedro, 88, Lima 



COUNCIL OF DIRECTION OF THE 

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR INTERNATIONAL 

CONCILIATION 



Lyman Abbott, New York 

Edwin A. Alderman, Charlottesville, 

Va. 
John R. Alpine, Chicago, III. 
Robert Bacon, New York 
Richard Bartholdt, St. Louis, Mo. 
George Blumenthal, New York 
Clifton R. Breckenridge, Fort Smith, 

Arkansas 
William J. Bryan, Lincoln, Nebraska 
T. E. Burton, Cleveland, Ohio 
Nicholas Murray Butler, New York 
Andrew Carnegie, New York 
Richard H. Dana, Boston, Mass. 
Arthur L. Dasher, Macon, Ga. 
Horace E. Deming, New York 
Gano Dunn, New York 
Charles W. Eliot, Cambridge, Mass. 
Austen G. Fox, New York 
Robert A. Franks, Orange, N. J. 
John P. Frey, Cincinnati, Ohio 
Robert Garrett, Baltimore, Md. 
Joseph P. Grace, New York 
William Green, Indianapolis, Ind. 
William J. Holland, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
Hamilton Holt, New York 
David Starr Jordan, Stanford 

University, Cal. 
J. H. Kirkland, Nashville, Tenn. 
Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw, New York 
Thomas W. Lamont, New York 
Adolph Lewisohn, New York 
Clarence H. Mackay, New York 



Theodore Marburg, Baltimore, Md. 

Brander Matthews, New York 

Silas McBee, New York 

George B. McClellan, Princeton, N. J. 

Andrew J. Montague, Richmond, Va. 

Mrs. Philip N. Moore, Washington, D. C. 

W. W. Morrow, San Francisco, Cal. 

Levi P. Morton, New York 

Stephen H. Olin, New York 

Mrs. Percy V. Pennybacker, Austin, Tex. 

Henry S. Pritchett, New York 

A. V. V. Raymond, Buffalo, N. Y. 

Ira Remsen, Baltimore, Md. 

James Ford Rhodes, Boston, Mass. 

Elihu Root, Washington, D. C. 

J. G. Schurman, Ithaca, N. Y. 

James Brown Scott, Washington, D. C. 

Charles Hitchcock Sherrill, New York 

Mrs. Seward A. Simons, Los Angeles, Cal. 

F. J. V. Skiff, Chicago, III. 

James L. Slayden, Washington, D. C. 

William M. Sloane, New York 

James Speyer, New York 

Oscar S. Straus, New York 

Mrs. Mary Wood Swift, Berkeley, Cal. 

George W. Taylor, Demopolis, Ala. 

O. H. Tittman, Washington, D. C. 

W. H. Tolman, New York 

Charlemagne Tower, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Edward Tuck, Paris, France 

George E. Vincent, New York 

William D. Wheelwright, Portland, Ore. 

Mary E. Woolley, South Hadley, Mass. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 040 811 6 



